Greed In The Great Gatsby Essay

Massimo Fraschetti
Ms. Greven
EAE4U
June 15th, 2016
The Corrupted Mind
For centuries, money has been an ever-prominent force in the decisions and actions of humans. The American Dream is a utopian ideology achieved through hard work in a well-established society, during the 1920s, immigrants would immigrate from Europe to Canada and the United States in search for a well-payed job to support their families abroad. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fatty Fitzgerald illuminates the powerful effect of money in creating and changing people in the American society of the 1920’s. Long Island, split into two sections, the East egg, representing old aristocracy, and the West Egg of the newly rich, Fitzgerald depicts the constant struggle between

social hierarchies to reach the ideal American dream. The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese illustrates the life of a young Jordan Belfort who strives for success and fame, and is corrupted by desire, substances and greed.

Both works demonstrate the decline of the American Dream through changing social frames between “old” and “new” money, their symbolic differences, corruption in the American society, the impact greed has on an individual, and the decay of moral values.

The setting and location of one’s house can convey a great deal about a person. In the novel, Fitzgerald uses characters' houses as a way to describe characters themselves such as their temperament, values, and place in society. East Egg and West Egg appear as identical formations of land, two “enormous eggs,” separated only by “a courtesy bay.” However, the eggs are dissimilar in every aspect except shape and size. Among the many qualities that Gatsby himself represents, one of the most iconic, is Fitzgerald’s use of Gatsby to represent new money and its morality that have grown through this class, assuming this, we may interpret Gatsby’s actions as reflections of new money archetypical qualities. On West Egg, “the less fashionable of the two,” (Fitzgerald 14) the houses are built with no regard to

codes or restrictions, as Nick's house is a bungalow sandwiched between two mansions. Nick’s home is modest, which also matches him, it does seem to possess some great character. Although Nick had grown up with money he does not flaunt it the way Gatsby does, revealing that newly rich consumers are eager to flaunt their prosperities, those who have grown up with money do not since they have been around money their whole lives. By contrast, the houses on fashionable East Egg “glittered” with “white palaces.” We see the difference between nouveau riche or new money, with the possible implication of lack of refinement or class (West Egg), and old money, with well-groomed houses and lawns accompanying well-groomed, well-bred occupants, who, on the surface, are characterized by gentility (East Egg). Tom and Daisy Buchanan live an East Egg, representing the corruption of the East being attracted by its glamour, excitement and promise of success, caring only of material objects. In the movie, Jordan Belfort is a former member of the middle class, in his early twenties opened his first brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, and did anything in his power to gain wealth, whether it was legal or illegal, at the age of 26 had made 46 million dollars. “I believe in total immersion, if you want to be rich, you have to program your mind to be rich. You have to unlearn all the thoughts that were making you poor and replace them with new thoughts – rich thoughts.” – Jordan Belfort Jordan Belfort gaining the status of “newly rich” at a very young age was eager to flaunt his prosperities, Jordan has the same archetypical qualities as Gatsby, in the sense that they both have a fashionable.

The East Egg, jutting off of New York, symbolizes fantastic wealth, which sinks its possessors into complete narcissism.

Its inhabitants are generally of "old money", and rely on their inheritance so strongly that they seem unsure of what they should do with their life when Daisy asks, "What do people plan?" (Fitzgerald 16). For many of those who live in the East Egg, they plan nothing, but prefer to lay around all day and be counter-productive. Fitzgerald showcases this when the readers are first introduced to Jordan, who states that she had been "lying on that sofa for as long as [she] can remember." (Fitzgerald 15) the East eggers have a constant air of superficiality about them, such as Jordan, who is "incurably dishonest", and Daisy, whose "voice is full of money" (Fitzgerald 127). The West Egg represents a more active, creative lifestyle. Nick, an inhabitant of the West Egg, sees himself as a "guide, a pathfinder" (Fitzgerald 8). In contrast to East Egg, it is a land of "honest people" (Fitzgerald 64), honesty possessed more to themselves, and to their hopes and dreams. After all, West Egg is a land of dreamers, such as Gatsby himself. In a sense, Gatsby is mostly a dream of himself, for he "sprang from his platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 108). The West Egg residents symbolize pioneers, almost a stereotype of the rugged West. To illustrate, in the West an evening “was hurried from phase to phase toward its close,” (Fitzgerald 12) in contrast to the pleasure

and relative unimportance of work in the East, where making the most money with the least amount of effort seems to be the goal. West Egg, in its extensive “melting pot” neighborhood, takes on the symbolism and character of the Old West, the land discovered in the fulfillment of dreams. Conversely, East Egg comes across as sophisticated, superficial, and smug.